1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a curve slider apparatus forming part of an user interface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The slider apparatus forming part of a user interface displays, for example, a reference line on the screen of a computer, has a pointer on the reference line, and converts the position of the pointer into a numeral expression so that a visually comprehensible operation can be realized. For example, when animation and the slider apparatus is combined, one end of the reference line corresponds to the starting position of the animation, and the other end of the reference line corresponds to the ending position of the animation. In addition, when the user moves the pointer using a pointing device (for example, a mouse), the animation is regenerated based on the position of the pointer and the moving speed. Therefore, when the moving speed is high, the animation is played back in a fast-forward mode. When the moving speed is low, the animation is played back in a slow mode.
FIG. 1 shows the above described slider apparatus. A display 1 of a personal computer, etc. is used for animation display 2 and slider display 3. The slider display 3 is formed by a reference line 4 and a pointer 5. The slider display 3 refers to a graphical display located at the lower part of the display 1. As described above, one end (for example, the leftmost point) of the reference line 4 corresponds to the starting position of the animation displayed on the animation display 2, and the other end (for example, the rightmost point) of the reference line 4 corresponds to the ending position of the animation. When the animation is regenerated, the pointer 5 moves on the reference line 4 from one end to the other end of the reference line 4. The user can move the pointer 5 by dragging the pointer 5 using a mouse, etc. in the arrow direction. Therefore, the animation can be regenerated based on the position of the pointer at the speed of the dragging operation.
Thus, the conventional slider apparatus displays animation on the display 1 by a combination use of the linear reference line 4 and the pointer 5 moving on the line so that desired information can be obtained while visually confirming the ratio of the animation displayed on the animation display 2 to the entire information.
The above described conventional slider apparatus confirms the information according to the position of the pointer 5 moving on the linear reference line 4. Therefore, when the change of displayed information such as animation, etc. does not correspond to a simple line, it is hard to select a desired position. For example, if displayed information is images recorded using a camera on the move, it is necessary to specify the current stage in the entire image to be displayed on the display 1. That is, in this case, the recording position is more important than the recording time. Therefore, in the above described case, the slider apparatus comprising the reference line 4 and the pointer 5 simply moving on the reference line 4 does not satisfactorily work.
The present invention aims at providing a slider apparatus capable of operating and displaying image information. etc., which cannot be specified by a slider apparatus using a linear reference line, in a visually comprehensible manner using a curved reference line.
That is, the above described problem can be solved according to the first aspect of the present invention by providing a curve slider apparatus having a coordinate display unit for displaying a curve slider formed by a reference line and a pointer moving on the reference line; an operation target display unit for displaying a corresponding operation target object at the position of the pointer moving on the reference line; a conversion table for storing data corresponding to the object to be displayed on the operation target display unit; and a control unit for controlling the movement of the pointer on the reference line interlocking with the regeneration of the object corresponding to the position of the pointer.
The coordinate display unit provides, for example, a reference line on a map and a pointer movable on the reference line, and specifies the position of the pointer using a pointing device such as a mouse, a tablet, etc. The control unit reads coordinate data of the position specified on the reference line according to the data stored in the table, and displays a corresponding object (for example, animation data) on the operation target display unit. In addition, it reads the information about the position of the pointer on the reference line based on the object (for example, animation data) displayed on the operation target display unit, and moves the pointer to the corresponding position.
With the above described configuration, the position of the pointer moving on the reference line can be freely moved to display an object at a desired position (for example, at a position on a map) on the operation target display unit.
Furthermore, the position on the reference line pointed to by the:pointer can be viewed by comparing it with the animation by forming the coordinate display unit and the operation target display unit on the same display, thereby realizing a curve sliver apparatus with high operability and visibility.
In addition, according to the second aspect of the embodiment, the recording operation and the difference in a moving unit can be displayed by changing the color and the form of the reference line.
With the configuration, only by giving a glance at the reference; line displayed on the coordinate display unit, the position of the recording operation and the moving unit of a camera device such as a car, a bicycle, on foot, etc. can be easily recognized.
In addition, the direction of a camera and the moving unit of a user as a cameraman can be displayed by changing the color and the form of the pointer. With the above described configuration, the direction of a camera and the moving unit of the cameraman can be easily recognized only by taking a glance at the pointer displayed on the coordinate display unit.
Furthermore, the present invention does not limit an applicable screen to a two-dimensional screen, but can also be applied to a three-dimensional screen. The operation target display unit can be designed to display not only dynamic object such as animation, etc., but also static objects such as a graph, a table, a text, a photograph, a static image, etc. indicating the temperature, humidity, sound, etc.